The Southern African Development Community (SADC) on May 8 approved the deployment of troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a regional response to help restore peace and security in the east of the country.

This was after a meeting of SADC leaders held in Windhoek, Namibia. The SADC summit “approved a common position to have a more coordinated approach, given the multiple deployments under multilateral and bilateral agreement arrangement in eastern DRC,” the SADC Executive Secretary, Elias Magosi, said as he read the meeting’s communique.

The summit urged the Congolese government to put in place necessary conditions and measures for effective coordination amongst sub-regional forces and bilateral partners operating in DRC.

“We stand ready, as a region, to address the changing dynamics in eastern DRC, mainly because of the resurgence of the M23 since last year, the proliferation of illegal armed groups, some of which launch attacks against civilians, state security agencies and public infrastructure from neighboring countries,” said Namibian President Hage Geingob

Geingob said SADC defense chiefs carried out a field assessment in March 2023 in eastern DRC.

“The outcome of the assessment will help us better understand the current situation, and will guide our interventions, moving forward,” he said.

 

It is unclear whether the assessment the Namibian leader talked about actually helped the SADC bloc to understand the root causes of the M23 resurgence. Were they even interested in finding the underlying cause of the matter? A lot remains to be known, or seen.

In 2013, a force from the SADC region – the Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) comprising troops from Malawi, Tanzania, and South Africa – was embedded within the UN Mission in DRC (MONUSCO). The FIB had one mission – to fight M23. Ten years later, the M23 problem resurfaces, or has not gone anywhere. The rebellion’s resurgence is evidence enough that the root cause of the problem was never given attention, or properly dissected, and addressed.

By and large, sporadic waves of fighting across many parts of the country – especially the east – make the DRC, a country wracked by decades of conflict, a complex and challenging humanitarian situation. Without a proper diagnosis or deliberate identification of the nature of DRC’s illness or problem, by thorough examination of the symptoms, the new SADC deployment will only repeat the same mistake.

Eastern DRC already has troops from the East African Community (EAC) deployed there since November 2022. Under a bilateral arrangement, Uganda also has troops in the country’s Ituri province. The EAC regional force, EACRF, now occupies numerous positions vacated by the M23 rebels.

In March, Angola’s President Joao Lourenço announced that his country would also send troops to eastern DRC under a bilateral arrangement with Kinshasa.

But, much as Kinshasa is pestering Luanda and others to deploy, the deployment of SADC troops in DRC raises more questions than answers, especially since the EAC already has thousands of troops – from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and South Sudan – already deployed in eastern DRC.

What are SADC troops coming to do that the EAC regional force has not done, or cannot do? Fight the M23 rebels as Kinshasa wants?

Since December 2022, the EAC regional force had occupied regions of eastern DRC’s North Kivu province, which were vacated by the M23 rebels. The rebels were complying with the Luanda agreement signed in November 2022, so as to give peace a chance. There was hope as EACRF units moved in and secured territories evacuated by the M23 rebels as stipulated in the Luanda agreement. The EAC force now occupies Sake, Kibumba, Rumangabo, Mushaki, Kilolirwe, Kitchanga, Kiwanja, and Bunagana, among many other areas previously controlled by the rebels.

The EAC force’s full deployment permitted the observance of a much needed ceasefire between parties to the conflict. The EACRF showed it is committed and determined to the peace and stability process in eastern DRC while upholding and respecting the DRC constitution, sovereignty and territorial integrity. The resumption of normalcy was noticeable in all territories after the restoration of security by EACRF.

Related: Tshisekedi’s plan to kick out EAC regional force spells doom for DRC

When EACRF initially deployed, President Félix Tshisekedi expected it to battle the M23 rebels and push them out of their occupied territories. But war is not what EAC leaders had prioritised as they wanted political dialogue to come first.

When his expectations were not met, the Congolese President became hostile to EACRF to the point of inciting the public and organizing demonstrations against the regional force.

Related: DRC: What’s the implication of EACRF commander's resignation?

Eventually, the then Force Commander of EACRF, Maj Gen Jeff Nyagah, on April 27, bowed to pressure and resigned from the mission, citing aggravated threat to his safety and a systematic plan to frustrate efforts of the EACRF.

There were several attempts to intimidate his security at his former residence.

Among others, Kinshasa deployed foreign military contractors (mercenaries) who placed monitoring devices, flew drones and conducted physical surveillance of Gen Nyagah’s residence in early January 2023, forcing him to relocate.

Related: Tshisekedi wants M23 out of DRC. Who are these rebels? And why is the Congolese leader not saying where they should go?

The M23 or "March 23 Movement," in reference to an unfulfilled peace treaty signed on March 23, 2009, between its leaders and the government of the DRC, is a Congolese rebel group. It was defeated by FIB in 2013 and fled to Rwanda and Uganda.

The group that fled to Uganda returned to DRC in 2017 but remained dormant until it resumed fighting again in late 2021.

The M23 group is fighting for the safety of its community, the Congolese Tutsi who continue to face an existential threat. They have been, for decades, marginalized, discriminated against, and targeted for extermination.

Despite the available evidence, the international community continues to ignore their plight.

Following her official visit to DRC in November 2022, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, was deeply alarmed about the escalation of violence in the Great Lakes Region where a genocide - the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda – happened.

“The current violence is a warning sign of societal fragility and proof of the enduring presence of the conditions that allowed large-scale hatred and violence to erupt into a genocide in the past,” she said.

In eastern DRC, Nderitu said, the current violence mainly stems from the refugee crisis that resulted as many individuals involved in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda fled to eastern DRC, forming armed groups such as the FDLR, which is still active in eastern DRC.

Nderitu noted that finding a solution to the ongoing conflict in eastern DRC would require addressing the underlying causes of the violence and learning lessons from the past.

“The abuses currently occurring in eastern DRC, including the targeting of civilians based on their ethnicity or perceived affiliation to the warring parties must be halted. Our collective commitment not to forget past atrocities constitutes an obligation to prevent reoccurrence”, the Special Adviser stressed.

Has the SADC assessment considered Nderitu’s concerns?

Or, isn’t the SADC region falling deep into Tshisekedi’s grand deception scheme of calling the M23 terrorists – in a bid to avoid political dialogue – and lying that neighboring Rwanda is fanning the conflict in eastern DRC, yet Kigali is genuinely interested in helping to find a lasting solution?